Letter: New York scaffold law promotes onsite safety

To the editor

Published 4:54 pm, Saturday, May 5, 2018

Efforts to repeal the Scaffold Safety Law undermine a critical safeguard for construction workers. In touting an attempt to deny its protections to workers on construction projects having any federal support, New York State Association of Realtors CEO Duncan R. MacKenzie relies on decidedly flawed data.

The 2013 report he cites has since been disavowed by both the Rockefeller Institute, which issued the report, and Cornell University colleagues of the report's main author. Indeed, less than a year after publication, Rockefeller Institute Director Thomas Gais stated to the Chronicle of Higher Education that the report had "big weaknesses" and its analysis "is just really awful."

The truth is the Scaffold Safety Law is one of the state's most crucial and straightforward protections for men and women in construction, simply requiring owners and contractors to provide onsite safety equipment — and allowing workers to hold them accountable when failure to do so results in devastating injuries or fatalities. Compliance with this law promotes safety.

Construction workers already contend with dangerous conditions aggravated by cuts to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that have resulted in fewer inspections. In 2016, New York state saw a startling 71 fatalities. This uptick is no excuse to gut safety laws. Rather, it's a clear indication we need stronger enforcement of existing standards.

We need to demand compliance by owners and contractors with the Scaffold Safety Law and embrace the Construction Insurance Transparency Act as a "sunshine" measure to analyze insurance issues. We should not strip construction workers of important protections for the dangerous work they do.

Charlene Obernauer

New York City

Executive Director, New York Committee for Occupational Safety & Health